Easter is the highest religious celebration in the religious calendar. On this glorious day, Our Lord defeated the bonds of death by rising from the tomb.
While this will always be the most significant aspect of Easter, many enjoyable secular activities have arisen for this happy time. Some of the most common gifts given at Easter are eggs. While many of these are made from candy, some eggs are dyed and can be eaten. Eggs are particularly appropriate for Easter since they signify life.
The gifted artist/writer Jan Brett has given us a beautiful, spectacularly drawn picture book about this secular side of Easter. The name of this gorgeous book is "The Easter Egg."
As winter is ending, all the rabbits in the forest begin creating Easter Eggs. The Easter Rabbit visits the forest on Easter Sunday and judges the eggs. The winner of the event then is allowed to help the Easter Rabbit hide the eggs.
Hoping to be the Easter Rabbit’s assistant, all the rabbits eagerly work on their eggs. The eggs are made out of all kinds of material. Some are made out of chocolate, others from finely carved wood, while still others have hand-drawn designs on the shells.
Hoppi is a young bunny able to enter the Easter Egg Contest for the first time. As he goes through the forest, he first meets Flora Bunny. The grandmotherly rabbit is planting wild flowers in her eggs, creating a fantastic effect. Hoppi starts picking flowers thinking these eggs will surely win. Flora kindly gives Hoppi several flowers to begin his project.
Down the lane, the young bunny meets Buster Birch. Standing in amazement, Hoppi watches as Buster carves a gorgeous egg from wood. The wood-carving rabbit gives Hoppi a piece of wood to begin a similar egg. Next, Hoppi sees Aunt Sassyfrass decorating creamy chocolate eggs. They look so delicious that Hoppi is sure this type of egg will impress the Easter Rabbit.
But the further into the forest he goes, Hoppi gets more bewildered. All of these eggs are beautiful but they don’t really seem like eggs he could create. So he lies down in the forest and an accident happens. A frightened mother robin knocks a lovely blue robin egg from her nest. Hoppi knows that the robin egg cannot survive without someone sitting on the egg to keep it warm. He also knows that this will take up all the time he has to make an Easter Egg. He so wants to win the contest and have the Easter Rabbit acknowledge him. But his assessment makes things painfully clear, without his help the baby robin will die. He makes his decision.
What choice does Hoppi make? What comes with a sacrifice? Have you ever made a hard decision? What was it? What reward comes from dying to self? What wonderful thing happens to Hoppi because of his sacrifice? To find out, go to the library and check out this lovely book, "The Easter Egg" by Jan Brett.
Jan Brett is a master artist and story teller. Her books have won numerous awards for their artistic brilliance and beauty. The stories told by this remarkable woman are very comforting for children. Brett has been a prolific writer/artist as well. You need to pour over the pages of her books with children since she imbeds so many clues to the story in the elaborately drawn sidebars. I love all of her work and think you will as well. I hope you get a chance to go the library and begin sampling Jan Brett lovely stories. Enjoy and savor!
